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February 12, 2003
Visual Cognition Experiment
We're studying cognition in my Psychology class, and the professor presented a video experiment to teach us about a certain nuance of visual cognition. If you'd like to try this experiment, don't click the "Continued" link on this entry (it gives away the answer).
The video is of six people passing two basketballs. Pay attention to the three people wearing white shirts. All you have to do is count the number of times they pass the ball back and forth (white shirted person to white shirted person).
Click on the link below to load the video. Be sure to allow the video to fully download (7.5MB :o) before you click "Play". Note: You'll need Quicktime to view the video.
After you've watched the video and you think you know how many times they pass the ball, click on the "Continued" link to get the answer.
=== If you're reading the full entry, stop first and watch the video ===
As far as I've counted correctly, the answer is 14. However, that's not exactly the point of this little excercise. Did you happen to notice the gorilla that walked across the scene and pounded his chest a few times? :D Go back and watch again. He really is there—and actually quite obvious!
This experiment demonstrates a phenomenon called "Change Blindness" or "Inattentive Blindness". Basically what it comes down to is that while you are paying attention to one thing you have trouble noticing changes (even wildly different changes) to your surroundings. Pretty weird, huh?
Click here for more information about this phenomenon. You can also see further demonstrations of it here.
Posted by Joey at February 12, 2003 04:00 AM